Communications flow from one network to another, and the communication gateway for each network is usually a firewall or router. A firewall comprises a router and a filter to screen out unwanted messages. There are different types of networks. For example, there may be an intranet for local communications within an enterprise. It is presumed that all users of the intranet are trustworthy because they all work for the same enterprise. Therefore, usually there is relatively little security concern within the intranet. However, oftentimes users of the intranet want to communicate with another entity located on another network outside of the intranet. Because this other entity may not work for the enterprise, and this other network is not under control of the enterprise, this other entity and network cannot be thoroughly trusted. Therefore, a firewall may be installed at the gateway to the intranet. The firewall is responsible for enforcing a security policy for incoming communications. This security policy may define which types of networks that the intranet is permitted to communicate and what protocols are permitted for the communications.
For example, the firewall may only permit communications with the enterprise's “Demilitarized Zone” or “DMZ”, if any. The enterprise DMZ comprises servers and other related devices that are supplied and managed by the enterprise, but do not contain sensitive data, or the only copy of sensitive data. Therefore, if the servers in the enterprise DMZ are corrupted by a communication from another network, the damage is repairable. Also, the management of the servers and related devices in the enterprise DMZ allows the enterprise a measure of security in the enterprise DMZ. The enterprise DMZ may be authorized to communicate with the untrusted network directly or through another DMZ of another enterprise. It is also possible to connect the intranet with its firewall directly to one or more untrusted networks, and rely on the intranet's firewall to provide security. Other types of networks which are less secure do not have a firewall. Instead, they connect directly to other networks through a router.
The most common protocols are TCP, UDP and ICMP. Each of these protocols includes additional criteria such as the range of ports used by TCP and UDP for certain types of requests, and the types and codes of ICMP. The TCP and UDP ports indicate which application in the recipient device should provide the requested services. It is also desirable in some cases to limit the range of ports for certain types of communications. The limitation on the range of ports facilitates the handling of the requested service. For example, many programs are written to open any available TCP or UDP port. This makes the identification of the application using such a port difficult. In some such cases it is possible to restrict the range of ports available to these applications to assist in identifying which application is using the port. It may be preferable for some networks to not communicate with another network which uses a different range of TCP or UDP ports. Also, some networks may not wish to accept certain types of ICMP messages. For example, some destination networks may not wish to process “route redirect” messages as the device sending the “route redirect” may not be trusted. Furthermore, some protocols are more controllable than others. For example, TCP provides “handshaking” for every communication whereas UDP does not. So, TCP is more controllable than UDP and therefore it may be preferable for some networks to not accept UDP communications.
Different techniques have been used to determine if two networks, connected through firewalls or routers are authorized to communicate with each other, and which protocols including additional criteria are authorized for the communication. For example, if a systems administrator of an external network wants to communicate through its firewall or router to an enterprise with the enterprise's firewall, the systems administrator of the external network can simply send its configuration information to a systems administrator for the enterprise. The configuration information may include the type of external network and the protocols it supports including the additional criteria for each protocol. Then, the systems administrator of the enterprise manually reviews the configuration information and determines if this external network should be permitted to communicate with the enterprise through the enterprise's firewall and if so, what IP protocol to use. If the system administrator believes the requested flow is acceptable according to the company policy, the systems administrator updates a file in the firewall of the enterprise to permit it to communicate with the external network with a specified IP protocol including additional criteria. Likewise, the systems administrator of the external network will update a file in its firewall or router to permit it to receive communications from the enterprise network with a specified IP protocol including additional criteria.
Usually once a year, sometimes more often depending on the company policy, all the filter rules must be verified to ensure they still conform to the company policy. Traditionally this is completed manually by the systems administrator, or a person outside of the day-to-day operations of the firewall such as a security administrator. The systems administrator or security administrator reviews each firewall rule to confirm the network type of each IP address and ensures that the flows configured in the firewall are acceptable according to the company policy. While this technique is effective, it requires tedious, human review of the configuration information from each network with which communication is desired, and there can be many such networks. Also, it focusses on checking permissibility of specified communications, rather than determining all potential permitted communications. Also, routers and firewalls of networks are often changed, and this may require the foregoing interaction between the systems administrator or security administrator to be repeated.
There is another technique to determine if two networks, connected through firewalls or routers are authorized to communicate with each other, and which protocols (including additional criteria) are authorized for the communication. According to this technique, a packet generator is located inside the firewall or router of an originating network being checked for compatibility with other networks. The packet generator sends a set of communication packets onto the network, but preferably to an unoccupied IP address. The communication packets of each set have different IP protocols with different additional criteria, but ones that the originating network supports. A “sniffer” is located just outside the firewall or router of the originating network and logs the generated packets that are allowed to pass through the firewall or router of the originating network. Based on the presence or absence of the original packet being logged by the “sniffer” a report can be generated as to what traffic the firewall or router allows through. This report can then be compared with the corporate security standards. While this technique is partially automated, it burdens the networks with many communication packets to handle. Also, it does not consider the type of destination network as a criteria in determining whether the originating network should permit communication; this is still left as a manual task once the report has been manually generated. The other concern is that the corporate security standards often change.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a technique to determine which types of networks can communicate with each other and which IP protocols can be used for such communication.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a technique of the foregoing type which is at least partially automated.